May 6, 2012--finishing the chairs

Well, last weekend did not turn-out quite as expected. 
I started Saturday morning with some of my fine downtown business friends.  We volunteered to put the flowers the City had purchased into the planters on Franklin Street and Strawberry Alley.  I want to take a moment to thank Mitchell Cherry (Ingredients), Sara Esterby (The Runner’s Hub), Anne Head (Rogate’s Boutique), Linda Shephard (Edward’s Steakhouse), Clifton Whittaker (Downtown Artists’ Co-op) and Ryan Bowie (The Roxy) for coming out to lend a spade for the beautification cause!  The flowers are lovely; plus, it shows the dedication your downtown businesses have for a holistic approach to the Downtown Clarksville improvement efforts.

Now that I’ve got the public service announcement out of the way, I can get on with my whining.
So, shortly after we were done cleaning-up the mess of flower planting, I came into the shop to do a little work before heading to the flea market.  That’s when it happened.  I made the simplest of movements—one I do every day—and pinched a nerve in my back.  Oh, the pain!  After first promising God that would take better care of my temple if he would allow me to return to an upright position, I began the process of standing erect again.  It took what felt like an eternity, but I did it.  Though in pain, I still needed to go to the flea market, so off I hobbled.
After a semi-quick tour of the market, I headed home with what little loot I could manage, knowing that when I returned, I wanted to paint our Adirondack chairs.  After Darren realized I wasn’t to be deterred, he helped me move and flip the chairs and I managed to get the first coat on both of the chairs.  I don’t remember if I mentioned it, but he had already coated them with a stinky coat of oil based primer in white.
 

Being that white is a difficult color to cover AND I like the layered look, I decided to apply a “mostly covered” coat of the Provence.  Now, in case you’ve missed it, the best thing about Annie Sloan Chalk Paint™  brand decorative paints is the fact that you don’t have to prime or sand.  The priming was done by my husband before I had decided to use this paint on some outdoor furniture.  That being said, however, I was able to use this paint right on the oil based primer (usually you have to use oil based paint over oil based primer).  All I had to do was wipe away the leaves and other debris and start painting.  Applying the Provence in a haphazard manner, I left quite a bit of the white exposed.

If I hadn’t gone on to reinjure my back later that evening (go figure), I would have applied the second coat within a few hours or on Sunday.  As it turns out, I wasn’t able to add that second layer of paint until Thursday morning.  I believe I had mentioned I would use French Linen, but I decided on Country Grey instead.

Country Grey was applied in a technique we call “drop and drag,” to achieve a touch of the color here and there. 

The final finish looks as though several layers of paint—applied through the years—have worn with age.  Instant patina!
Now, instead of standing out like a pair of brand-new Keds® among some mistreated Chuck Taylors®, they blend with all of our other old, rusty and chippy patio furniture.  I am smiling!

If you’ve got plans to paint some furniture or do some other improvements to your outdoor areas, I’d love to hear about it!


PS--Now that I have been living with the chairs for a few weeks, I've decided to add a wash of french linen over the chairs.  The color is too "beachy" for our natural surroundings--I need to tone it down.  I'll post an updated photo when I am done.

April 22, 2012--Vacation Planning

It’s mid-April and our families (mine and my sisters’) are already “knee deep in the water somewhere.”  (Borrowed that from the Zac Brown Band, it is a song my son adores and played every chance he got—based on the dictates of his sisters and their level of patience, last summer.)  We are trying to make plans for our family vacation. 

What are you going to do?  Hang around the house and try to get some projects done?  Visit the beach? Take a trip to the family home?  How do you decide what you’ll do? 

Sometimes out of necessity, our plans are determined for us; then others, we get to choose.  This year we all want to be together and were creatively planning to make it happen.  I, inevitably, encounter at least some stress about planning our vacation time. 

Of course, there are always the money concerns—can we afford it, but also, can I afford to be away from the shop?  Then, this will be the first time, in a long while, that Kendall and I have been away from Hodgepodge and ARTifacts at the same time—we usually travel on separate planes, just like the President and Veep.  Well, not quite, but there is a lot of coordinating involved when both of us are out of town at the same time.  Then, shortly after we return, I’ll have to turn around and head to Atlanta for the market.  So, that builds the stress, too.  It usually takes about three days to get back into the swing of the shop and through all of the junk mail—which, by the way, is getting more difficult to distinguish from the “real” mail.  Then I will hop in the car and leave again.  (Thank goodness for a phenomenal staff!)  It will, naturally, all come together and we will make some great memories—that is the best part, making the memories!

Memories can fortunately be made anywhere.  You don’t have to be on a beach or in the mountains. While I have found that it’s easier to sit still and relax when I’m not in close proximity to my house or shop, I do enjoy being at home.  Accomplishing projects around the house or shop is not only satisfying, but reinvigorating.  There is nothing like the sense of accomplishment over a chore or elective project.  Do you agree?

I’d almost rather use the money spent on vacation to add a permanent improvement to the house.  I wonder if my brother-in-law and nephews would consider it relaxing to make memories with us building a car port here at the house.  He could bring his boat and they could take it out on the Cumberland at the end of the day.  I’d even pack some sandwiches for them to enjoy.  (Hey, I’m a giver!) 

The view from my favorite place in the world--our back patio.

Nah, I enjoy time spent with our entire family on the Nomini Creek in the Northern Neck area of the Virginia coast.  It really is my favorite place—heck, a photo of the sun setting on the creek is the wallpaper on my phone.  

Sunset on Nomini Creek--checking our pulse rate . . .

I guess I need a little balance.  Time away is good, but the memory making can happen anywhere.  So we’ll go to VA and have a great time, and while there, after a few beers, I’ll plant the car port seed in Bill’s subconscious.

April 29, 2012--Outdoor Painting with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (tm)

As I sit down to write this, the birds are chirping, the temperature is perfect, with a nice breeze rustling the leaves.  I wish I could heave this desk top computer to the sidewalk and write while sitting on the bench in front of the shop.  Yes, I know, there are those little contraptions called “laptops” or “notebooks;” I even have one, but it has been giving me a little grief and has portability issues now.  Not to mention that it’s missing about 3 or 4 keys on the keyboard—a reminder of an overzealous swordsman who once roamed our house and a panicked old dog, trying to find purchase as he climbed into the back seat of the family roadster during our last vacation.  My laptop has seen a lot of stuff—but it’s traveling days are over.

Back to the beautiful weather—nice change of pace . . . Paige is actually enjoying the weather.  My back porch beckons regularly now.  The gardens are filling-in so nicely and looking especially nice with a layer of mulch.  (Isn’t it amazing what mulch can do for a yard?)  I am resisting the urge to add more plants and continue to work diligently to provide the plants we added to the side yard with a good start in life.  Although, I did pick-up a few Pineapple Sage to replace the ones we had last year.  They have the most amazing blooms and I place them on the edge of our shade garden, where they receive enough sun to produce their amazing fuchsia blooms.  They look quite stunning against the backdrop of the shade loving plants.

We’re planning to paint our new Adirondack chairs, which I purchased as a Christmas gift for Darren, this weekend.  Last December, I was struggling to think of a good gift for Darren—after all, what more could he want?  Then I remembered the 24 years-old Adirondack chairs Darren had made for us.  One was in pieces in our backyard, with the other closely on its heels.  

The old chairs in their former glory--yes, that is a piece lying underneath the one on the right!  And, since writing this article, Darren has repaired both. 

My mind started churning and with some help from Matt Dixon, I was able to track down the gentleman who sells them at the Downtown Market. He and his wife were kind enough to dig them out of their garage for me.  They are very sturdy and comfy, but I want to paint them (surprise).

Darren was industrious and slapped a coat of oil based primer on the chairs before I was able to tell him my plans.  (You can also see the recently repaired chairs in the background--Darren plans to use them for another 24 years--minimum!)

I've been telling everyone that the Annie Sloan Chalk PaintTM can be used on outdoor items, having seen pictures and listened to testimonials, but I want a first-hand experience I can reference.

I was going to let Darren do the painting, but I’ve decided I will do it.  That way I can achieve a vintage look for our brand new chairs.  Darren could do it, but I realized—after trying to explain to him how I wanted them to look—that I should do.  He’s got a lot of stuff to do around the house (his self-imposed “honey do” list) and this is really my “thing,” so I’ll tackle it.  I’m going to paint a layer of Provence (a bright blue—somewhere between azure and cyan on the color wheel), topped with a layer of French Linen (just like it sounds—it is the color of unbleached linen).  

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (tm) in Provence and French Linen

The real beauty of this project is that I’ll paint them in the morning and we will be sitting in them in the afternoon.  Darren has plans to grill some oysters and, I don’t know why, but I think they’ll taste better while sitting in these chairs!

When I transfer this post to my blog, I’ll add some “after” pictures, so please visit for “the rest of the story.”

(As it turns out, my editor asked me to do a follow-up story, so I'll post the "after" pictures with the next article!)